Official Lines

Amid all the talk of conference expansion and the prominence of Texas as a prize member in anyone’s expansion plans, I have been thinking about earlier expansions and a conference that Texas used to call home.  

Once upon a time there was a conference that was very nearly made up of a single state.  It was known as the Southwest Conference.  A strange name, for it really did not occupy what we now think of as the American Southwest. Rather at its inception in 1915 it included schools from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.  The Oklahoma schools did not stay in for long and from 1925 until the 1990’s, the conference was all Texas schools – but there was this one university in Arkansas.

I realize that my memories of the SWC are biased.  They are viewed through Razorback Red-tinted glasses.  Being a Razorback was the one thing that unified our small state.  It did not matter if you lived in Little Rock, West Memphis, Dumas, or Texarkana – every corner of the state pulled for the Hogs on Saturday.  Yes, there are other schools in Arkansas, but they were never rivals of the University of Arkansas.  That may have had something to do with the unusual dynamics of the Southwest Conference, for in Arkansas we were playing Texas every week.  Of course Texans might mean Aggies, Longhorns, or Red Raiders -- and then there was the zoo life of the other Texas schools: Owls, Mustangs, Cougars, Bears, and Horned Frogs.  I remember how it made for wonderful cartoons on the sports page!

This reminds me of a painting I saw at a burger stand in Russellville that depicts the mascots of all the Arkansas schools.  The Razorback sits in a central place of honor surrounded by a Wonder Boy, a Bison, a Purple Bear,  a Hillbilly, a Lion, a pre-NCAA ban Indian, and other odd creatures .  The Razorback seems like a friend or hero to the other mascots.  He’s the well-to-do brother that they all respect.  Interesting painting, but if you want to see the Razorback in action, he has to be depicted with his rivals from Texas.  Arkansas never formed any in-state rivalries because it was “us” versus Texas all the time.  That’s a unique view in the Southwest Conference.  In the other state that made up the SWC, the rivalries and loyalties were diverse.  Having lived in Texas also, I can tell you the GPS coordinates in the state where fan loyalty changes from Longhorns to Aggies.  Most UT fans could shake off the occasional loss to the Hogs as long as they beat the Sooners that year. 

The Arkansas view of the Southwest Conference could be reduced to one simple rule: It was our little state, overlooked and underrated, against the Goliaths of the Lone Star State.   During the Southwest Conference’s football heyday of the 1960’s, Texas was the home to NASA, LBJ, and Houston Control.  Arkansas had the Beverly Hillbillies.  We needed our football team to put us on the map and earn the respect we felt that we deserved.  You will find fans who still talk about the 1964 no-loss season.  Why?  Because it’s really all we’ve got.  You will also find, among those who remember it, that the narrow victory against Texas that year (14-13) meant more than the 10-7 triumph over Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl to win the National Title!

The football heyday of the Southwest Conference culminated in the 1969 Great Shootout.  The #1 Texas Longhorns, under Coach Royal, arrived in Fayetteville to take on #2 Razorbacks led by Coach Broyles.  Richard Nixon flew in to watch this game.  The airport was too small for Air Force One, so the Commander-in-Chief landed in Marine One on the practice fields east of the stadium.  The Southwest Conference was in the national spotlight.

Football glory in the Southwest Conference faded in the 1970’s and 80’s.  It was replaced by the magic of basketball.  I remember paying a single dollar to sit on the red plastic seat with no back in Barnhill Arena.  Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson piloted our teams against the likes of Houston’s Phi Slamma Jama, Guy Lewis and his polka-dot hanky, and Aggie b-ball coached by the winningest basketball coach in the SWC, Shelby Metcalf.  SWC schools were well represented in brackets, including the final four, each March during the 80’s and 90’s.

It was that one little university in Arkansas that began the decay of the Southwest Conference.  The Razorbacks left for the greener pastures of the SEC in 1991.  That was the first break-up, but the signs were clear.  The NCAA had hit SMU with the “Death Penalty” in 1987 for numerous violations.  There was no future for the SWC.  In 1993, the conference’s big three (Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech) along with Baylor jumped into the Big Eight to form the Big 12.  The SWC disbanded in 1996. 

It makes me wonder what will be lost and possibly forgotten after the next round of conference expansions.  Recently I was talking to a Razorback fan, a young man about half my age.  We share the hope of seeing our Hogs win a national title or get back into the brackets this March.  But he knows only the SEC and has never eaten steak during “Beat Texas Week.”  He doesn’t know what it is like to be the Razorback Red-headed stepchild of a conference the size of Texas.